| Journal: TWUK | Section: |
| Title: | Issue Date: 04/09/00 |
| Author: | Page Number: 37 |
| Copyright: Other |
Reduced air fares swell visitor levels
CHEAPER tactical air fares are continuing to help boost off-peak travel to New Zealand from the UK.New Zealand Tourism Board UK marketing manager Rachel Piggott said: “Air fares to New Zealand are still very competitive with other long-haul destinations.
“There has been a rise in demand by those who wanted to avoid the millennium period, as well as the extensive UK bank holidays in May when people only had to take 12 days off work to combine a three-week holiday. This was ideal for the UK market to New Zealand, where Britons stay an average of 25 days.”
Piggott expects some traffic to opt for New Zealand instead of Australia over the next couple of months to avoid the Olympic Games in Sydney.
UK arrivals for June stood at 7,416, a 9.8% increase on the same month last year, while the number of pure holiday visitors rose 34% to 4,332. At the same time, the traditional visiting friends and relatives market dropped 12.3% to 2,064.
For the year ending in June, the UK share jumped another 12.7% to 182,061 – a rise of more than 30,000 Britons over two years. The proportion of pure holidaymakers also went up 13.3% to 86,594 arrivals.